Individuals who are functionally blind due to eye injuries or diseases of the cornea often use rigid gas permeable (“RPG”) contact lenses. In particular, such individuals often utilize a Boston Scleral Lens™ (a “Scleral™ lens”), developed at the Boston Foundation for Sight™.
When inserting an RGP lens, and particularly a Scleral™ lens, which contains a large volume of fluid, it is critical that the wearer keep the lens aligned with the wearer's eye. The alignment involves both centering the lens on the eye and aligning the lens on a perpendicular axis to the eye. The lens must be centered, square and level to the eye for a successful insertion.
If a Scleral™ lens is misaligned during insertion, the fluid will spill out. Moreover, a slight misalignment of an RPG or Scleral™ lens may cause the lens to hit the wearer's eyelid or finger and fall out. Additionally, insertion of a lens such that it is only partly on the cornea or in the corner of the eye can cause injury. Even if an imperfect alignment does not cause injury but aligns by flipping onto the sclera, there is a good chance that bubbles will be formed in the fluid reducing the efficacy of the lens.
Accordingly, insertion of such lenses requires precise movements of a wearer's hands in addition to a stabilized head. Many elderly wearers simply do not have steady enough hands to insert their lenses. Other wearers are on medications or may have a degenerative condition affecting their fine motor movements rendering insertion of such lenses extremely difficult.
Additionally, people with diminished fine motor movements, such as those described above, may have difficulty applying make-up, especially eye make-up, and using tweezers around their eyes and face. Moreover, such people may not be able to perform activities such as sewing, knitting, tying fishing line, writing or drawing.
An embodiment of the present invention addresses these problems by providing an adjustable support on which a user's arms/wrists can be supported and the user's head can be comfortably stabilized in relation to the hands in order to allow the precise movements of the hands and fingers.